WEBVTT Kind: captions; Language: en

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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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[...]

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The welcome voice of NBC speaks many languages,
music, the

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crosstalk of forum and discussion.

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It speaks the clipped and colorful
lingo of sport, the many hundred

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tongues and tones of drama.

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It speaks the language of laughter,
the rippling idiom of comedy, and it tells

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the world of how the world
spins with the voice of truth.

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These are voices of NBC today,
versatile and modulated.

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But do you remember more than 20 years
ago when radio was learning to talk?

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Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes
defended the Harding Administration

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course on the League of Nations today
when asked whether it wasn't time for the

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Republican Party to give the people
an unequivocal statement in regard

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to its position on the world court.

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He denied its voice was a whisper crackling
with static and you stayed up till

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three scratching a crystal with
a wire cat's whisker to log

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Pittsburgh, 50 miles away.

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And then radio moved up from the cellar
to the parlor, its earphones replaced by

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a handsome cone speaker, big enough for
dad to get his whole head in as he still

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tried for distance,
maybe Cincinnati direct on a clear evening.

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But it was a magic night late in 1926 when
dad switched to his local station and

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found that it was linked by telephone
lines to 19 other stations to form the

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National Broadcasting Company.

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The creation of this pioneer network meant
that a broadcast originating from any

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of these affiliated stations could be heard
clearly in the area served by all the

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others and always at the
same spot on dad's side.

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Now radio was going places and NBC went
with it, extending its network from coast

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to coast, spanning the nation to bring
the on the spot play-by-play report of

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Graham McNamee describing the doings in
Pasadena's Sonny Rose Bowl to winter

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-bound listeners in New York.

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But millions of widely separated people
were still to be turned into next-door

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neighbors, and so the cross-continental
chain became a permanent web, and the web

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was woven into a fabric, and the fabric
covers the nation, reaches up into Canada

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across the Pacific, America's number
one network, more than 170 stations,

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independent community stations, of which
only six are owned and operated by NBC.

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But to affiliates and key stations alike,
the industry's focal point

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is in Radio City, the city within a city.

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Here at New York's Rockefeller
Center is home site and half

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side for the NBC family.

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And here the welcome mat is laid out for
over half a million visitors a year,

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friends from all over the world
who've dropped in to see what goes

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on behind their radio dial.

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The NBC guides would have to be
graduate engineers to answer all

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the questions that people ask on
our regular tours about how a radio

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show was actually put on the air.

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That was the simplest story in the old
days when this antique master control desk

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took only one man to operate,
but today it requires a whole

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team to man the panel board.

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From this room, programs all around the
clock are routed over 16,000 miles of

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leased telephone lines to radio
stations all over the nation.

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This is the nerve center of NBC.

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You know, what you hear on the air
represents only a fraction of the

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effort that goes into network radio.

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The microphone doesn't pick up, for example,
the sound of the teletypes in the

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communications department, which connect
our key cities and handle the 3,000

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messages a day which are necessary
to bring your shows in on cue.

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You can't tune in on the traffic
department either, but without

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it, no telling what you'd get.

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We're on this board every minute of the
broadcast day as programmed weeks in

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advance to be constantly checked
and recheck for split-second

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transmission to the proper station.

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Our guests naturally always want to see
some of the voices that they hear every

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day at home,
so they usually stop in on a rehearsal studio.

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Here, behind a sound-proof window,
they can eavesdrop on a popular daytime serial

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getting a final run-through before airtime.

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Thank you, nurse.

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Do you want me to stay, doctor?

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No, it won't be necessary, thank you, nurse.

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Yes, doctor.

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Sit down, Mrs. Everett, please.

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Well, doctor, maybe you found out what's
wrong with my husband. Maybe you can

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tell me about him. All those other doctors.

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You're true. That is well.

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I liked your entry line. It was flat and
it's good characterization. Now, I want

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to get two emotions in
this last speech of yours.

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I want to feel on that line where you
sit down that you're more nervous about

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entering a doctor's office,
or at least most people generally are.

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And also on the other line in that little
sentence there, make sure that I have

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the feeling that you are concerned

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about your husband's health. It's very serious.

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Oh, I see.

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Is that clear?

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Yes, I see.

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Let's go to a motorized in that sense.
All right, let's run that scene

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again from page 16.

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The doctor's line, sit down, Mrs.
Everett, please. I'll do that. All right.

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Sit down, Mrs. Everett.

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I guess people are more current-events
conscious these days because they always

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want to see the NBC Newsroom and
maybe catch a glimpse of the Dean of

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commentators, Mr. Kaltenborn.

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And that's the news picture as it looks
in post-war Europe tonight. Confused

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enough to be sure, but certainly not
altogether hopeless. Good night.

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Well, I've just helped turn
another day over to history.

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But history has no clocks and has no calendars,
and that's why NBC has provided

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a room where history can be recorded eternally.
That's the newsroom.

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Let's visit it for a bit, shall we?
All night and all day, every day in the year,

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these machines bring the world's
news to NBC for processing.

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A bell signal will indicate that a
really hot news story is on the wire.

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Usually,
they just take away the ordinary everyday

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facts about the daily doings of humanity.

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It's scarcely pausing between stories
on the national debt, the international

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crisis, and the national league.

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It is our job here to sift these facts,
to analyze and evaluate them, bring them

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into focus with their backgrounds,
and turn them into stories for radio's

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newspaper, the only newspaper which
is perpetually going to press.

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Radio's magnificent job of reporting
the news is a matter of record.

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A very little note has occurred in the
last twenty years that hasn't cut a groove

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in the wax of NBC's permanent
transcription files.

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Radio is not just a thing of the moment.

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The reserves for all time in its archives
are the sounds, the words that history

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made and spoke as they happened while it was

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actually happening.

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And there's the Winnie Mae now,
winging her way in with a new world record,

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around the world in the
record time of eight days,

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fifteen hours, and fifteen minutes.

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The crowd's rushing out on the field to
meet the ship as it taxis up the runway.

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And from where I am, I can't see Caddy,
but that looks like Wiley

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Post now, getting out of the plane.

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I've got the NBC microphone through this crowd,
and it just,

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Wiley, will you and Harold?

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Still now, they've dropped the rope out
of the nose of the ship, and the path to

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the father's lining wind is looking down.

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Wait, get this started, get this started.
This way, and this

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way, this drive is terrible.

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If I am elected president of the United States,

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with confidence in our armed forces,

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with the unfounded determination of our people,
we will gain

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the inevitable triumph so help us God.

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And from this room, NBC sent you its reports,
hour by hour, and sometimes

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even minute by minute,
on the greatest news story of all

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time, the Second World War.

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It followed the news wherever it went,
and sent back eyewitness accounts, the

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tide of global battle,
sent back the actual sound made by a world

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coming apart at the seams.

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And so today, NBC News and special events,
mindful of its obligation to keep

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America informed, has enlarged its
facilities so that everyone, in sound of a

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radio, has his ear to the ground.

00:12:06.000 --> 00:12:13.000
It is not intended to suspend the
decision of the Security Council by an

00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:17.000
understanding that these answers
have to be in before we act.

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If you look closely enough behind your
radio dial, you would inevitably find

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people, at NBC important people.

00:12:27.001 --> 00:12:31.000
In the mail room, for instance,
the clerks who handle the thousands of letters

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you write into us every day,
more letters than are received

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in many of good-sized post office.

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And the people in the information
department who see to it

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that every letter is answered.

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For modern network radio is more
than just a man with a microphone.

00:12:46.000 --> 00:12:51.000
It is a thousand men and women performing
tasks without which your receiver would

00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:53.000
be just a silent piece of furniture.

00:12:53.001 --> 00:12:55.001
Yes, radio is people.

00:12:56.000 --> 00:13:00.000
Everyone from the man who tells you who's
in studio 8-H, to the men who make a

00:13:00.000 --> 00:13:02.001
living slamming doors and breaking dishes.

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Radio is also the anonymous standby pianist,
who on a moment's notice must fill

00:13:12.001 --> 00:13:14.001
an emergency silence with music.

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And it's the director,
the producer, and the composer too.

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People whose voices are never heard on the air,
but who have made NBC's music

00:13:25.001 --> 00:13:27.001
department the finest in the radio industry.

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A mass of specialized detail goes into
the preparation of a musical program.

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Every selection must first be investigated
for clearance and performance rights.

00:13:41.001 --> 00:13:48.001
When the numbers have been cleared for

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broadcast,
some are turned over to the composing staff and

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special arrangements are prepared.

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The balance of the program may come
from orchestrations on file at NBC.

00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:07.000
The largest and most complete working
music library in the world, containing

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everything from swing to symphony.

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Rehearsal for the Fred Waring Show,
and the talent of the singer is deftly

00:14:26.000 --> 00:14:27.001
woven into the pattern of the program.

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It takes many hours of patient practice
to tailor the artistic and technical

00:14:32.001 --> 00:14:36.000
quality of every note
transmitted to your loudspeaker.

00:14:51.001 --> 00:14:55.000
The rehearsing, revising,
rewriting, time to the

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relentless sweep hand of the stopwatch.

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Finally, they're on the air.

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Fred Waring and the Pennsylvania's
broadcasting today from Radio City in New

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York, in here to greet you on this
nice Thursday, your host, Fred Waring.

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Hello, everybody, and thanks for coming.

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Thank you.

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[...]

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NBC New York is also the eastern
terminus of radio's most famous

00:17:00.000 --> 00:17:01.001
thoroughfare, Alan's Alley.

00:17:02.000 --> 00:17:04.000
Tell me, Mr.
Moody, what are your feelings about the radio?

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I don't hold with furniture that talks.

00:17:06.001 --> 00:17:08.000
Well, you have a radio.

00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:10.001
I had one in the henhouse.

00:17:10.001 --> 00:17:10.001
[...]

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One day, all the hen's nest would be empty.

00:17:13.001 --> 00:17:14.000
Uh-huh.

00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:16.001
Next day,
every nest would have two eggs into it.

00:17:16.001 --> 00:17:17.000
You mean?

00:17:17.001 --> 00:17:19.000
The hen's would listen into double or nothing.

00:17:19.001 --> 00:17:20.000
Yeah.

00:17:22.000 --> 00:17:27.000
Co-capital of World Entertainment is
NBC's western radio city in Hollywood.

00:17:29.001 --> 00:17:34.001
The names they write in autograph books
outside NBC Hollywood are those of the

00:17:34.001 --> 00:17:39.000
greatest stars in radio and the most
in demand for advertising sponsorship.

00:17:39.001 --> 00:17:43.001
Got to hurry and pack. We'll travel life.
It's the thing to do these days.

00:17:43.001 --> 00:17:44.000
Where's the suitcase?

00:17:44.001 --> 00:17:45.001
Right here in the hall of the park.

00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:50.001
The money that advertisers
spend to sponsor these shows

00:17:50.001 --> 00:17:52.001
pays for other programs, too.

00:17:52.001 --> 00:17:57.000
Non-commercial broadcasts in the public
service account for more than 40%

00:17:57.000 --> 00:17:59.000
of NBC's scheduled time.

00:17:59.001 --> 00:18:02.001
The network makes free time
available for roundtable discussion

00:18:02.001 --> 00:18:04.001
and farm and home programs.

00:18:07.000 --> 00:18:14.000
It provides regular facilities,
free and impartial to the three major faiths.

00:18:15.001 --> 00:18:20.001
And it divides the air fairly and without
cost so that the voices of labor,

00:18:21.000 --> 00:18:23.001
management, and agriculture can all be heard.

00:18:24.001 --> 00:18:28.001
But neither network nor sponsors
ultimately decide what you shall hear.

00:18:29.000 --> 00:18:33.001
To determine the most popular types of
radio entertainment, NBC engages in

00:18:33.001 --> 00:18:36.000
constant research by telephone.

00:18:38.001 --> 00:18:43.001
Hello. This is the program rating service.

00:18:43.001 --> 00:18:47.000
We are conducting a survey of radio listening.
Were you

00:18:47.000 --> 00:18:48.001
listening to your radio just now?

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:52.000
So what program were you listening, please?

00:18:52.001 --> 00:18:55.001
By careful attendance to the wishes
expressed in letters sent in by

00:18:55.001 --> 00:18:57.001
listeners all over the world.

00:19:00.001 --> 00:19:04.000
By carefully worked out scientific tests.

00:19:05.000 --> 00:19:08.001
Ladies and gentlemen, we have invited
you here to participate in testing

00:19:08.001 --> 00:19:10.000
a proposed radio program.

00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:15.000
We want you to register your approval
or disapproval at various points in the

00:19:15.000 --> 00:19:17.001
program on those reaction sheets that you hold.

00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:23.000
As the light flashes on the screen,
please let us know how you feel about the

00:19:23.000 --> 00:19:27.001
program by checking either good or fair
or poor alongside the corresponding

00:19:27.001 --> 00:19:29.001
number on your reaction sheet.

00:19:31.001 --> 00:19:33.000
And by direct contact.

00:19:33.001 --> 00:19:38.001
A kind of a program you'd recommend
for your child or your grand- Amusing?

00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:39.001
Amusing.

00:19:39.001 --> 00:19:40.001
Interesting for the children.

00:19:40.001 --> 00:19:41.001
It's a training program.

00:19:42.000 --> 00:19:46.000
I think that was very nice for children,
but I don't believe that a great many

00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:48.000
grown-ups would care for listening to it.

00:19:48.001 --> 00:19:52.000
How did you feel? You've heard these
older folks say it's a good program for

00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:53.001
youngsters. How do you feel being youngsters?

00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:56.001
Well, it was boring at first,
but then it got a little

00:19:56.001 --> 00:19:58.001
interesting as it went on in history.

00:19:58.001 --> 00:20:01.000
All right. You feel perhaps the
program is a little childish.

00:20:01.001 --> 00:20:01.001
That's right.

00:20:03.000 --> 00:20:06.001
NBC's obligation to its listeners
is founded on its basic

00:20:06.001 --> 00:20:08.000
respect for the American home.

00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:11.001
All material for the microphone
is examined in the light

00:20:11.001 --> 00:20:13.000
of a zealously guarded code.

00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:18.001
The ordinary standards of good taste,
public conscience, incorporated into the

00:20:18.001 --> 00:20:20.001
network's program policy.

00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:25.001
For NBC, know that vigilance
is the price that radio must

00:20:25.001 --> 00:20:27.000
pay for its stewardship of the air.

00:20:27.001 --> 00:20:32.001
It knows that responsibility is
the first obligation of freedom.

00:20:34.001 --> 00:20:47.001
The freedom of every American to turn the
switch on his radio and listen without

00:20:47.001 --> 00:20:52.001
a license to what he pleases when he pleases,
and to pay no tribute for what he

00:20:52.001 --> 00:20:57.001
hears, was guaranteed by the Constitution
more than a hundred years before the

00:20:57.001 --> 00:21:01.000
first practical spotter was ever coaxed
out of the electromagnetic wave.

00:21:01.001 --> 00:21:05.000
The freedom of the air in
America is inalienable.

00:21:08.000 --> 00:21:14.001
To extend this American freedom into
new and uncharted wavelengths, NBC in

00:21:14.001 --> 00:21:19.000
1941 established the first commercial
television station in the country, began

00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:24.001
immediately to expand it into a network.
Adding sight to sound, it opened an

00:21:24.001 --> 00:21:29.001
electronic window, rang up the magic curtain,
and ushered you to the first row,

00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:33.000
to the best seat in the house,
your own easy check.

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:42.000
The more than two decades of

00:21:42.000 --> 00:21:45.001
NBC radio have been dedicated to
the spirit of public service.

00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:51.000
Now, in bringing television, network
television, out of the laboratory and into

00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:56.001
your living room, NBC rededicates itself
in this same spirit, to provide the

00:21:56.001 --> 00:22:00.001
greatest medium of mass information
and mass entertainment in the world.

00:22:45.001 --> 00:22:51.000
The switch is visible a whole new era of
communication. In one generation, boys

00:22:51.000 --> 00:22:57.000
and vision have transcended space.
Science, engineering, and organization have

00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:03.000
harnessed the ratio between light and sound,
so that radio or television, if you

00:23:03.000 --> 00:23:08.001
look behind your dial that is set at NBC,
you will find that you are tuned in on

00:23:08.001 --> 00:23:11.001
today and focus on tomorrow.

00:23:45.001 --> 00:24:03.001
[...]